Ice Cube Is Making Plans To Shake Hollywood Up With Studio Venture

On the eve of the 88th Academy Awards the discussion over #OscarsSoWhite has yet to die down. And with more and more actors boycotting the event that excluded Creed, Beasts of No Nation and Straight Outta Compton from major recognition, the list of no-shows is growing.

Actor, rapper and producer Ice Cube was on hand to talk about why he’s not attending for The Hollywood Reporter‘s interview series, “The Hollywood Masters”.

Filmed at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV in front of an audience of students, the 46-year-old music veteran kept it 100 about the industry, what he wants to see and how to make progress happen.

“I’ve been fighting my whole career to show a different side and prove naysayers — not prove them wrong, because I don’t think you should get your energy from negative people, like, ‘He don’t believe in me so I’m doing it.’,” he said about rejection in Hollywood. “That’s the wrong approach. You should just do it ’cause you feel like you the sh*t and you can do it… There’s not enough Ice Cubes getting a chance to do their thing. And hopefully my example will break down more doors.”

As a producer, Cube has 26 titles under his belt; as an actor, 41 titles. But despite being a respected and successful multi-talented entertainer he stills faces roadblocks to get films made.

“I’m ready to run a studio,” he said. “I’m ready to green light movies, and be in it to win it, you know? It’s close. It’ll happen.”

And as far as making movies to appeal to the Academy, he’s consistent on his opinion on them. “When you go to a movie, you don’t care for one Oscar, really. Do you care if a guy got a Oscar on the shelf or is it a good movie? And, you don’t care how much the movie made. Do you like it?”

Adding, “A good movie is a movie that you could see over and over again, not a movie that wins a Oscar, or a movie that makes a lot of money. It’s a movie that you personally can watch over and over again. That, to me, is a measure of a good movie.”